Dearest Astrid Brummer, can we talk for a minute about an issue that is near and dear to a lot of hearts in this province — authentic Ontario wines, you know, the kind made with 100% VQA approved Ontario grapes?

As you well know, you are perhaps the most important person there is in Ontario for the future growth of this category of wines at LCBO/Vintages stores. As Ontario Wines Product Manager of the provincially-controlled LCBO you have the power to move the needle on 100% VQA wines up or down as you see fit just by tweaking things one way or the other at your 660 stores throughout the province.

Note: Astrid Brummer has responded to this open letter. Her response is at the bottom of this post

Note 2: On March 26, the new LCBO store at Winona opened its doors with the CIB wines removed from the VQA shelf to another location in the store. No explanation, no comments, they were just gone. It’s a victory for all those who complained, all those who expressed displeasure and all those who value what means to make honest, authentic wines made with 100% Ontario grapes.

But your response to a query last week about the product placement of VQA wines under a sign reading: Our Wine Country, 100% Ontario on the same shelf as non-Canadian (foreign grapes blended with a touch of Ontario grapes, so-called International Canada Blends) is concerning for me and, let’s be honest here, an embarrassment to all the VQA wineries who are sharing that shelf alongside the ICB wines at the new Winona LCBO store in Niagara wine country.

I could be wrong, of course, but I’m pretty certain that Niagara’s Fielding Estate Winery doesn’t appreciate being sold alongside French Cross Rosé, made from a blend of who knows what from who knows where, under a banner that reads 100% Ontario. I do not need to ask Vineland Estates, PondView or Megalomaniac how they feel about their carefully-crafted 100% authentic Ontario wines finding a home right beside the Jackson-Triggs’ White Label wines, wines that are described by the company itself as a product that “showcases our winemaker’s skill at blending premium wines from the most renowned wine-producing regions in Canada and AROUND THE WORLD.” That “around the world” part can be up to 75% with only a minimum of 25% the Canada part.

So, for those ICB wines to share a shelf with VQA wines is dishonest at best, and plain wrong at the very least.

Of course, and you know this (as we all know), these ICB producers are trading off the quality, authenticity and good name of VQA wines. They are right there on the shelf looking like VQA wines all glowing pink and pretty and beckoning consumers to save a couple of dollars and “buy me … because I’m sorta-not-really Canadian.” The majority of consumers have no idea it’s not real Canadian wine and buy these ICB wines with a clear conscious believing they are making a good decision not only for their wallets, but also supporting local VQA wineries.

For you, Astrid Brummer, to respond to a simple challenge asking why VQA wines need to share shelf space under the banner “Our Wine Country, 100% Ontario” like this on Twitter for the world to see …

… is shocking to me and I assume many others. It is a fail and it’s a big fail that you appear to have no interest in rectifying even though this situation occurred under your watch as the LCBO’s top person in charge of VQA Ontario wines.

The sign over the entire shelf of wines that you have placed together (both VQA and ICB wines) says to the consumer that everything on that shelf is “100% Ontario,” which is pure crap. They simply aren’t and the signage clearly says they are.

I did make another trip out to the new Winona store to see if any changes have been made since the error was first pointed out to you. And, no, of course not, because it’s up to you to make the change, yet you see nothing wrong with the placement of ICB wines beside VQA wines.

It goes against the grain of everything I have read about you, including this bio on the LCBO site:

“Ontario Wines Product Manager Astrid Brummer (seen far-right above during a panel discussion on Ontario wines) has been immersed in the wine world for years, as an LCBO product consultant, a guest on TV talk shows, a member of the VQA grading panel, and an educator. Trained at WSET and at Brock University’s oenology and viticulture program, she’s considered a local wine expert.”

You come from a background that would suggest a great deal of respect for authentic Ontario wines made from 100% Ontario grapes.

So why the resistance to keep ICB wines away from VQA wines? Why open the store with the boss of LCBO bosses George Soleas waxing poetic about the great VQA selection at the store when CIB wines are mysteriously placed right beside them? Especially in a new store at the gateway to Niagara where sensitivities of such juxtaposition is at its highest level in the entire province. Especially with the Ontario Wine Council, which represents VQA producers in Ontario, in attendance at the grand opening. Did they not complain to you?

And all this taking place the very same week that the federal government, after decades of concern over ICB wine labelling, finally changed the rules for all wine that’s not made from 100% Canadian grown grapes.

Blended wines bottled in Canada from both domestic and international grapes will be required to make a new statement following changes announced last Monday by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

The new statements created by the CFIA to replace Cellared in Canada (ICB) are as follows:

In other words, the federal government understands the importance of truth in labelling and separating authentic wine from wines made with grapes sourced from who knows where.

I believe that you, Astrid Brummer, have an obligation to be a champion to Ontario wineries, to help them in their struggle to break free of the confusion that is, in part, perpetuated by the LCBO, that IBC wines are made from Ontario grapes.

ICB wines have their place (for now). Some of them might even taste great. Which is fine. As you yourself say in this video here, there are some delicious wines in the ICB world, including this Bodacious White.

Ontario grape growers and others working in the industry need the ICB category to survive. It is a fact of life. The 25% minimum that goes into Ontario ICB wines translates to a significant amount of domestic grapes. Here are the numbers.

International Canadian Blends have a 32% market share

VQA wines have a 10% market share

The volume sold of domestic wine is 75% ICB and 25% VQA

54% of the Ontario grape crop goes into ICB wines, the rest into VQA wines

The goal of everyone involved in the Ontario wine industry, and I include you Astrid Brummer, as I do every blending winery in the province, is to change those statistics and move towards a province that makes wines from 100% Ontario grown grapes.

That will never happen until the largest retailer in the province, the LCBO, changes its attitude on ICB wines. You can start by moving them off the VQA shelf at the Winona store and get them far, far away from any wine that is made with 100% Ontario wines.

And you can start by doing it today.

— Rick VanSickle, publisher of Wines In Niagara

Response from Astrid Brummer

“The LCBO has immense respect for and takes great pride is supporting the local wine industry, and works to showcase and promote 100% Ontario-made wines at every opportunity. When it comes to the display of our products, we also take great care to do that in a way that best showcases the products and results in clarity and convenience for customers.

“We would never want our fixed display signage to confuse or mislead our customers. In the instance of displaying wines, the standard product flow for all LCBO stores is that all VQA wines are placed on the shelf, followed by ICB wines. While we aim to have these wines on separate shelves, that is not always possible due to store layout and shelving space, as you saw at the Winona store. To mitigate confusion, the fixed sign in that store is centred above the VQA wines that occupy three-quarters of the shelf. To the eye, it appeared that there was a clear distinction between these two product groups.”

“That said, in partnership with our friends at the Wine Council of Ontario, we are reviewing the LCBO product placement plan. We have also been involved in the process that has achieved the recent CFIA labelling statement changes, and customers can look forward to revised signage in our stores to reflect those updates in the near future.”

Note 1: Wines In Niagara did follow up with an email to Brummer to ask if the Winona signage situation would change any time soon. There has been no response as of yet.

Note 2: In Brummer’s response she says the LCBO takes “great care” in showcasing products that results in clarity and convenience for customers. My question and always has been: How does putting VQA wines beside ICB blends (foreign blended wines), some with nearly the same label, offer clarity to customers? At the very least it is confusing, and at the worst, it’s shameful.

Comments (10)

As I mentioned to you, the staff there could not care less. They said we do what they tell us to do. The person I spoke with said she knew the wines were in the wrong place but, obviously, didn’t want to question management. Very sad.

How do we Ontario and BC wine aficionados, put pressure on Ms. Brummer to do the right thing, bearing in mind that eventually, as a Silly Servant, she works for us?

And yes I did say BC wines too. There is no reason that we can’t purchase BC VQA wines in our local stores and visa versa. The failure to do so is pure protectionism by the LCBO and the Ontario VQA Vintners.

Kerry, The only way is to keep talking to them, keep explaining to them via social media that local is important to you, that supporting wines that are authentic and made with 100% Canadian grapes is important to you. They will get the message one day, or at least I hope so.

As someone who works in the lcbo as a CSR and product ambassador I second his tweet in response. This isn’t some hatched out plan to try and sell ICB wine as VQA wine, it’s not some trickery to make people think they are the same and devalue the VQA name. It’s simply just the way the product space happened to fill out. This isn’t an LCBO issue this is a retail issue and is common. We constantly adjust and change what we carry on our shelves. Our goal is always to sell VQA product because not only does it help our economy it also helps our bottom line selling a more premium product.

I don’t speak for the LCBO in anyway. This is my personal opinion and not representative of the LCBO as a whole.

Ryan, Thank-you for your comments. I simply ask you this: It’s a brand new store, they could have arranged things any way they wanted. Why did it end up this way with the ICB wines on the same shelf as VQA wines that has a sign saying “100% Ontario” right over it? That can’t be by accident. And knowing it’s wrong, with people upset and even the Ontario Wine Council lodging a complaint, why not simply move the ICB wines to another location. Sounds simple to me. I do appreciate your comments, however.

The government puts an enormous amount of money into promoting wines produced in Ontario, and unfortunately, this extends to wins which purport to be from here too (ICB, formerly known as Cellared in Canada). Both terms are ambiguous, but legal, because the Ontario government seems unable to pass laws which require clear labelling and clear signage. And the CFIA isn’t really doing any better.

There are many Canadians who are unclear about what they are buying, and many of them are commited to buying LOCAL wine from local grapes, but they’ve been fooled by ambiguous labelling and signage. I say “signage” because I’ve visited many LCBO stores, and in about 25% of them, there are issues related to missing VQA / ICB signage, and incorrectly placed signage. And of course, staff who think it’s acceptable. I’ve suggested that they have signage which is more movable, as well as some sort of cardboard barrier between the sections. My suggestions are usually met with excuses: “The planogram requires it”; “we don’t have the space”; “I / we don’t make decisions”, et al.

The real problem is that the six members of the Winery and Grower Alliance want ambiguity, and the LCBO is happy to provide it. And similarly at the stores owned by Constellation, Peller, Colio, etc. (some of which are now within the regular shelf space of Loblaws-owned stores), we’d be hard-pressed to find any signage promoting VQA. (This is also about ambiguity.)

On a related topic: Many consumers of Ontario wine (and Cellared in Canada / ICB) truly believe in buying wine made from 100% local grapes. That’s what they think they’re getting, due to the ambiguous labeling and signage which Rick and others have discussed. I have spoken personally with at least 2000 wine drinkers, many of them in stores, and many of them in the process of searching for demonstrators. The vast majority of them could not clearly identify a wine from 100% Ontario grapes, for one or more of these reasons:
– Ambiguous labelling on the bottle.
– Ambiguous or incorrect signage in the store.
– Their impression that all of a particular brand is from 100% local grapes.
– Their impression that all Ontario wine is VQA.
– Lack of visibility of the VQA logo or term.
– Ambiguous producer name (particularly when an ICB producer wants to disguise a wine’s origin).

There should be a legal requirement that VQA wines be in their OWN SECTION in ALL stores (both LCBO and producers’). There should be a large poster in EVERY VQA section, and that poster / sign should concisely and clearly explain that VQA means that the wine is 100% from Ontario grapes. The same poster should ALSO explain International – Canadian blends, and that they are a distinct category.

There should also be CLEAR signage in both the VQA and ICB sections of EVERY store. That signage should clearly and concisely state the meaning of that term, applying ONLY to the wines directly below that sign, or with a clearly delineated section, which could quite easily be created through movable signage and movable barriers. This is not rocket science.

I no longer expect the ICB producers to properly train its staff on VQA / ICB clarity, but I do expect it of the LCBO. And it seems to me that consumer laws require honesty in labeling. This concept should be extended to signage. I see no reason to allow any exceptions, with just a little creativity, and not a lot of expense.

If we actually put these simple changes in place, we might find a surprising change in what actually sells in the stores. I believe that we would see a real shift from the 54% of Ontario grapes which are currently going to ICB wines.

Obviously there is couple people who don’t care to really do their jobs. So tired of mediocre corporative vision. Disconnected departaments under a bureaucratic umbrella.
You go VQA industry, all of you are doing an awesome job! #proudcanadianwine #vqadistinction

From my 8 years as a committeeman at the GGO it became clear to me that the liberal government had decided to fall on the side of maximum revenue over supporting an industry which is stifled by LCBO policies. With your editorial skills and abilities I would be great if you can lead the education of Ontario voters. With well thought articles or a petition to the next government (PC most likely) that how they can get a grip on the LCBO and how they can lead our province to discover all the great VQA wines we produce verse the short term and short sighted revenue that the ICB wines deliver. To be fair and balanced the GGO did in the late 1990s and early 2000s warn the Mike Harris PC government with Tim Hudack MMP not to continue beyond the 10 year transition period the Cellard in Canada wines were allowed in order to develop a market for VQA wines. The 10 year period ended in 2003 and VQA wines were to take over exclusively with no more special tax and market treatment for blended wines. This didn’t happen because the money from LCBO was just more than they could refuse.

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